1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a visual communications system comprising communications terminals connected via a network and a method of controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been suggested an interactive-network, simultaneous-viewing system enabling a user to view the same TV program or the same video content as another party by using a TV phone or the like, while enjoying a conversation about the movie or the program they are viewing.
In this regard, transferring a control command requires a certain amount of time and therefore, if one party pauses the content while viewing the same content as the other party by using the TV phone or the like, both parties cannot pause the content at quite the same position.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H7-245594 (1995-245594), corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,684,526, discloses an arrangement in which time information about a user's responding operation is added and sent to a destination over a telephone line regarding a responding operation to a program, so that the destination can accurately identify the responding operation time of a plurality of users. The arrangement, however, does not resolve the above problem.
If a pause occurs near a scene boundary of the content, the content may pause before switching scenes for the one party, but pause after switching scenes for the other party. In this situation, the images displayed on their screens will be quite different from each other, which may cause theme confusion in their conversation about the program or the paused scene.
Furthermore, when playing back content recorded in a recording medium, playback timings may be different between the devices since a period of time needed for the playback varies with the devices. This may cause a situation where they are talking about different parts of the content while viewing the same content.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a controller and a video playback unit to eliminate these disadvantages.